Sisters can’t recognise each others’ faces because of rare condition

We’ve all been in that situation where someone looks familiar, but we just can’t place the, but for two sisters it’s been a lifelong problem, with the most bizarre – yet often amusing – consequences.

Victoria, right, are living their lives unable to recognise the faces of anyone around them (Picture: Caters News/Matt Stewart)

Donna Jones and Victoria Wardley suffer from a severe type of prosopagnosia, a condition that means they are unable to recognise faces – including those of their partners and children.

The condition is so bad the sisters are unable to identify each other – or their own reflections.

Mrs Wardley said: ‘I’m not really sure what I look like, and I couldn’t describe my husband to you either.

‘We rarely take any pictures because there’s no point – we’d have no idea who was in the photo.’

The sisters, from York, were diagnosed by their family doctor.

Mrs Wardley, 32, a dog groomer, said: ‘I just thought I wasn’t good at remembering people.’

Ms Jones, an office worker, added: ‘I’ve gone up to men in supermarkets thinking they were my partner, only to realise I’d grabbed hold of the wrong man!’ But the 30-year-old’s illness often leaves her feeling guilty.

‘I should know what my own child looks like, she said. ‘If she went missing, there’s no way I’d be able to tell people what she looked like.’

The sisters rarely go out together, for fear of losing each other and both confess they have argued with their own reflection on numerous occasions.Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, affects one in 50 people.